Coroner: Marine Janice Rubendall found dead in river

COURTHOUSE — The body found in the Schuylkill River Sunday was identified as 25-year-old Janice Rubendall, a Marine Corps veteran from Lower Providence who was reported missing in February, Montgomery County Coroner Walter Hofman confirmed.

The cause of death is pending, Hofman said.

The coroner said the Marine’s tattoos helped to make a preliminary identification of her remains.

“We compared the tattoos with the tattoos described to us (by the family),” he said.

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The body was recovered from the riverbank along West Indian Lane in West Norriton Sunday afternoon.

Rubendall, of Wayne Avenue in Lower Providence, had not been seen by her family since Jan. 4. An organized search for the missing woman in mid-February yielded no significant finds.

Hofman, who is working with Naval Criminal Intelligence Service for further confirmation of the identity, will continue efforts to get a useable fingerprint from the woman’s badly decomposed body.

Hofman said more investigation is needed to help determine how Rubendall actually died. Currently, investigators do not know whether her death was accidental, a suicide or a homicide.

“We need to know who last saw her and what occurred,” he said.

Times Herald Community Engagement Editor Terry Casey contributed to this story.